Focus session · exam revision · 25 min
Focus session for exam revision: 25 minutes, a washing machine, when you are doing this for the first time
25 minutes of exam revision, with a washing machine and a note on what to do when you drift.
25:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Notice the temperature of the air on the backs of your hands. If this is your first go, stay with the plainest version of the instructions. This works better when you don't overthink it.
1 Before you start
- Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
- If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
- Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
- Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
- Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
2 While the timer runs
- If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
- Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
- If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
- When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
3 When it ends
- If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
4What to put on
a washing machine — Domestic, mechanical, and oddly steadying. The sound of something else being dealt with.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.